Huskies to host first round of NCAA softball regional

The Washington Huskies will begin defense of their national softball championship on their own turf this coming weekend as the UW was chosen as one of 16 host sites for the first-round NCAA Regionals.

The Huskies, who earned the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament, will host North Carolina (40-18), Nebraska (29-27) and North Dakota State (33-23).

All games throughout the weekend will air live on ESPNU, with Friday’s action kicking off at 2:30 p.m. with Nebraska taking on North Carolina.

The Huskies then face North Dakota State at 5 p.m.

The rest of the weekend scheduled will be announced later in the week.

Washington is making its 17th consecutive postseason appearance, missing out only in the program’s first year of existence in 1993. UW has made nine Women’s College World Series appearances, including winning the program’s first national title last year.

Despite being No. 1 in the national rankings every single week since the preseason poll and winning the Pac-10 title outright, the Huskies were not chosen as the No. 1 overall seed. That honor went to Alabama, which is No. 1 in the RPI rankings. Michigan is the No. 2 seed, followed by the Huskies.

UW (45-6, 17-4) goes into the postseason with its fewest regular-season losses in school history. The Huskies were 41-10 last year before going 10-2 in the NCAA Regionals, Super Regionals and Women’s College World Series to bring home the program’s first national championship.

On the other side of the bracket, should the Huskies come through their region, is No. 14 Oklahoma, Syracuse, host Maryland and Fordham.

The Huskies are one of five seeded Pac-10 teams, including No. 5 UCLA, No. 10 Arizona, No. 11 Cal and No. 13 Arizona State. The conference will send seven teams overall into the tournament with Oregon and Stanford also included. The conference equaled the SEC and Big 12 with the most teams.

“It’s going to be awesome hosting,” Washington head coach Heather Tarr said. “Our new lights are great and we’ve had a great Pac-10 season at home and we’re excited to stay in Seattle for the weekend.

“We’ve done a good job all year long dealing with the expectations of last year. We’re better defensively, Danielle (Lawrie) is better and our offense overall is better. Any time you can have a national championship under your belt, you’re going to gain a lot of confidence. Danielle and our seniors definitely want to go out with a bang.”